Abstract

Small caliber (7.62–13.7 mm) smoothbore powder guns have been developed to generate planar shock wave data in solid materials. Basically the experiments consist of launching flat plates of materials whose shock properties have been predetermined against targets made from materials with unknown properties mounted beyond the gun muzzle. A rotating‐mirror streak camera is used to monitor the impact velocity and the recoil velocity of the target rear surface. These results, together with shock properties of the known material, are sufficient for determining a point on the shock Hugoniot of the unknown material when the assumption is made that target rear surface velocity is twice material velocity. The impact process is reversed (i.e., unknown material is launched against standard material when this assumption is not valid). To date, impact velocities have been limited to 2.5 km/sec because a powder gun was used for projectile launching but impact velocities can be extended to 7 or 8 km/sec by using a small light‐gas gun.